Bleed control kits to be added to defibrillator boxes in Oswestry

Town councillors voted to purchase seven of the kits, for just under £100 each, after hearing how they can save lives.

The kits include a special gauze which helps with blood clotting.

First responders in the town say the kits can help save lives.

The motion to council was put by Conservative councillors but was voted for by all members at the council's October meeting.

It was put before council after a stabbing incident in the town earlier this year in which a teenage suffered serious injuries.

The motion called for the council to team up with the Daniel Baird Foundation.

Daniel Baird was just 26 years old when he was stabbed in the early hours of July 8, 2017, in Birmingham following a night out with friends. There was no first aid or bleeding control kit available, and he died shortly after arriving at hospital due to catastrophic bleeding.

His family say that bleed control kits could help in all emergencies with serious bleeding including crashes, falls in the street or workplace accidents.

"For the cost of a kit, a life could be saved and their family spared lifelong grief knowing that they could perhaps have survived," Daniel's family say on the foundation website.

Michelle Simmonds, First Responders group leader in Oswestry, says she fully supported the idea.

She said the kits will fit in defibrillator boxes and says West Midlands Ambulance Service fully support the bleed kits.

"They are a pack that are used in the event of serious bleeding, and containing special bandages, scissors et cetera – all you need to prevent a bleed-out.

"There is a special gauze in there to create blood clotting which would help victims."

The council now hopes to work with owners of defibrillators in the town to put the bleed control kits within the boxes.